Timezone

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A geographic region across which the same standard clock time is observed, usually set by a country or a set offset from universal time
2. An area of the earth where all places keep one official local time, often following a band of longitude or national borders
3. A zone of the globe that shares a single standard time, which is adjusted by a fixed number of hours from Coordinated Universal Time

Etymology: The word is a plain compound: "time" joined to "zone," with "zone" borrowed from Latin "zona" via Greek "zone," meaning a belt or girdle. The idea behind the joining is literal. A zone was a band wrapped around the earth, and the time zone is a band of longitudes that all keep the same clock time. The concept only made practical sense once railways and telegraphs needed a shared timetable across distances, so the compound reflects a modern problem rather than an ancient one. Because the parts are so transparent, the word's meaning has changed little since it was formed. Its first element carries the whole idea of local clock time, while its second element keeps the old sense of a bounded strip. A reader who knows "zone" as a belt or area of a city will find the same picture here, stretched across the globe.